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Disable Background Apps in Windows 10 version 1803

Windows 10 version 1803 and pre-release builds of version 1809 come with a bug. The option which is intended to block apps from running in the background doesn't work as expected. As you may know, background apps in Windows 10 can be disabled globally, or turned off individually. This feature appears to be broken. Here is a workaround.

In Windows 10, some apps are always running in the background. Microsoft designed Windows 10 to run apps constantly to provide notifications to users and keep those apps updated with content that they fetch from the internet. There are plenty of users who never use the Store apps, but they still run in the background and consume system resources.

Out of the box, some Universal apps are already enabled to run in the background in Windows 10. You may have never opened those apps, not even once and may not need them, but they are running anyway. Alarms and Clock, Photos, Store and some other apps are set to work in the background. The Alarms and Clock app for example is able to show you an alarm notification if you have set one when it is running.

In Windows 10, there is a special section in the Settings app which allows you to manage which apps can run in the background. There, it is possible to prevent some apps from running constantly.

There, disable the apps you don't intend to use from the list. Switch off the appropriate option for each app:

However, this doesn't work as expected in Windows 10 versions 1803 and 1809. For some reason, the OS keeps turning on the background apps automatically after restart or shutdown of computer. Here is a workaround.

On the right, modify or create a new 32-Bit DWORD value GlobalUserDisabled. Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value. Set its value to 1 to disable the feature. A value data of 0 will enable it.

About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.